11,200 printed titles, in 19,500 volumes. By the time it passed to the British Museum in 1827 it had grown to 65,000 printed volumes, as well as 17,500 pamphlets and 446 manuscripts; the manuscripts mainly date from the reign of George III and few are of particular note. Analysis of the subject catalogue shows that as of 1820 44% of the titles in the library were concerned with history, and 16% were literature of various kinds. An extensive range of subjects was represented by smaller numbers of works. Recent literature was not particularly well represented, with, for instance, no works by Jane Austen being listed. It seems that library policy was only to collect novels once it was clear that the author in question had gained an enduring and positive reputation. 260 editions of the Bible were included, and works from other European countries were well represented. For instance, 57% of the history titles had been published outside Britain. There was a good selection of library catalogues from other collections, and runs of the official publications of Parliament. For an eighteenth-century library there was an unusually good selection of periodicals, although newspapers were not collected. See also King's manuscripts, British Library The Battle of the Books, a short satire written by Jonathan Swift in 1704, depicting a literal battle between books in the King's Library References Further reading Mandelbrote, Giles and Taylor, Barry, eds. Libraries within the Library: the Origins of the British Library's Printed Collections. London: British Library, 2009. . Barnard, Frederick Augusta. Bibliothecae regiae catalogus. London: Bulmer and Nicol, 1820-9. Catalogue of the King's Library. Copies held by various major scholarly libraries. Smith, Joseph. Bibliotheca Smithiana. Venice, 1755. The original catalogue of Joseph Smith's library. Copies held by many major scholarly libraries. External links British Library webpage British Library webpage British Museum webpage British Library Database of Bookbindings. Search for "George III" to see bindings from the King's Library. The King's Library copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Select the "paper copy" option to see images of the King's Library copy. British Museum British Library collections Donations from the Royal Collection